Chinese contractor of Hanoi metro line wants official launch in AprilFeature: China-constructed urban railway in Vietnam on horizon
Source: Xinhua | 2018-09-21 09:36:34 | Editor: huaxia
Photo taken on Sept. 20, 2018 shows a scene of trial operation of Vietnam's first urban railway in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Xinhua/Ngo Minh Tien)
by Tao Jun, Bui Long
HANOI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's first urban railway, constructed by China Railway Sixth Group Co. Ltd, started its trial operation on Thursday.
The Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated rail line in Vietnam's Hanoi capital is scheduled to run on a pilot basis for three to six months before commercial operation which is expected to start before lunar new year festival (early February 2019).
Urban railway is a new means of transport in Vietnam, transporting a large number of passengers in a convenient and comfortable way, Nguyen Ngoc Dong, Vietnamese deputy minister of transport, said on Thursday when he took part in checking and supervising its trial operation.
The trial operation is a milestone in the urban railway project before the rail line is put into use, he stated.
"I think that technical aspects will be OK. The only issue is management work, how to build up apparatus, master techniques and procedures needed to operate the rail line, and organize transport connections," the deputy minister said.
Hanoi has a big population, so it should develop at least three urban rail lines and more bus routes to link its urban transport systems, he stated.
Vietnam and China are cooperating to implement some programs and projects on railway development and connection.
"China has developed urban railways very quickly," and the country currently has up to 27,000 km of high-speed railway, accounting for nearly one half of the world's total, the deputy minister said while comfortably sitting in an air-conditioned green train to participate in evaluating its trial operation.
Photo taken in the carriage of Vietnam's first urban railway shows a landscape of Hanoi,Vietnam, on Sept. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Ngo Minh Tien)
From Thursday, 13 four-carriage trains are scheduled to run on a pilot basis transporting passengers for a total distance of more than 13 km through 12 stations in the three districts of Ha Dong, Thanh Xuan and Dong Da in 30 minutes.
Trains run on both directions and they depart at interval of 10 minutes. Each train stops at each station for one minute.
An air-conditioned train, whose length is some 80m, can accommodate up to 1,000 people. Each carriage is some 19m long, 2.8m wide and 3.8m high.
After taking a short ride, the Vietnamese deputy minister got off the train at Van Quan Station, and entered a control room full of computers and technical boards on its walls.
One of the big boards bears a Vietnamese sentence "Diagram of Electricity Supply System for Urban Railway in Hanoi, Vietnam". Another board features buttons, switches and name tags which say "Escalator", "Anti-fire pump" and "Smoke-discharging fan".
Chinese technicians in the room, mostly handsome guys wearing short-sighted glasses, glued their eyes to computer screens, while Dong and Vietnamese reporters listened to presentations about technical issues.
According to Vu Hong Phuong, vice head of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong railway project management unit, the railway's trial operation is of significance because it ensures safe and sound commercial operation to serve people in the next few months.
"We are checking the smooth combination of equipment in the whole system. We are also completing final steps such as decoration and equipment, including stairways, escalators and elevators," Phuong said.
Regarding personnel for the urban railway, a number of Vietnamese people have been sent to China for training, and others have been trained in Vietnam, Phuong said, noting that they will gradually master relevant technologies and techniques to well manage, operate and maintain the whole railway system.
"The trains' average speed is 35 km per hour," although they can run at twice of that speed, he said, noting that the short distance of some 1 km between two adjacent stations make it hard for trains to travel at their maximum speed.
Inside one train on Thursday, many local reporters were busy taking photos, shooting videos, or livestreaming elevated trains and their trial operations. Major Vietnamese media outlets, including Vietnam News Agency and online newspaper VnExpress posted many nice photos and videos about the trains on the move.
Hu Suojin, commercial counselor of the Chinese embassy in Vietnam, said Vietnam's first urban railway, constructed by China Railway Sixth Group Co. Ltd using Chinese ODA and Vietnamese reciprocal capital, will help ease transport pressure in Hanoi, contributing to the closer all-round cooperation between the two countries.
Photo taken on Sept. 20, 2018 shows a scene of trial operation of Vietnam's first urban railway in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Xinhua/Wang Di)
In August, during a test run of Cat Linh-Ha Dong rail line, many Vietnamese people were invited to board trains. They were eager to see designated areas for people with mobility disabilities. Seats for the elderly, pregnant women and children are highlighted in yellow color, while steel holders are there to make sure safe positions for standing passengers.
"The train is clean and cool. Unlike roads with traffic lights and frequent congestions below, it runs fairly fast and smoothly. I hope more urban rail routes like this will be built in Hanoi and other localities," Nguyen Anh Duc, an 11th-grade student of Cao Ba Quat High School in Hanoi's Gia Lam district, told Xinhua.
Duc, whose father works as a driver for the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project, said he is studying hard to be admitted to the Automobile Technology Faculty of the Hanoi University of Industry.
"I want to develop advanced vehicles for both personal use and mass transport. I do not want people to think that going on roads in Hanoi is a nightmare. I want daily trips are relaxing," the young man boasted, grinning from ear to ear.
BYD signs deal to build cross-sea monorail in BrazilBYD speeds up monorail mass transit system
By Guo Rong | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-08-21 09:39
The interior of the carriage of the SkyRail test line is seen at the headquarters of BYD in Shenzhen，South China’s Guangdong province, Aug 20, 2018. Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn
New energy carmaker BYD is speeding up to expand the market for its SkyRail monorail mass transit system to solve problems such as traffic congestion and air pollution.
After five years of research and development costing 5 billion yuan ($783 million), BYD launched its first commercial SkyRail line in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Sept 1, and was upgraded to automatic driving last year.
The company has signed several domestic and international deals, including in the Philippines, Egypt, Brazil, Morocco and Cambodia.
BYD's director of President's Office Li Wei said the straddle-type monorail requires only one-fifth of the building cost and one-third of the construction time compared with a subway system.
Its one-way transportation capacity is 10,000 to 30,000 passengers each hour, she added.
With its concept of technology-based and innovation-oriented, BYD suggested to build a multi-dimensional transportation system to remove transportation from ground level and develop either overhead or underground transportation.
The SkyRail features BYD's proprietary iron-phosphate batteries, autonomous driving technology, small turning radius, low noise and a short time construction frame.
Passengers wait to board a monorail train of SkyRail in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Sept 1, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]
The rail transit is now one of BYD's four key sectors, which also include electronics, automobile and new energy.
BYD’s new energy vehicles have landed in more than 200 cities across 50 countries and regions.
Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, the pace of BYD's globalization has been significantly accelerated, Li said.
In recent years, BYD has set up factories in the United States, Latin America and Asia Pacific countries, and its investment has been fully expanded, Li added.
BYD has 220,000 employees worldwide, 33 industrial parks at home and abroad, and has production bases in many countries including the United States, Brazil, Japan and India.
BYD is one of the leading companies located in Pingshan district of Shenzhen.
The district is located in the southeast end of " Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Corridor ", with new energy (automobile) industry base, biological industry base, new industrialization demonstration base, export processing zones as four state-level signs.
It formed the industrial cluster including new energy (cars), biological medicine, and new generation of information technology and intelligent manufacturing as three leading industries.
17:05, 08-Apr-2019Sri Lanka conducts test run on China-funded southern railway line
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-07 12:30:51|Editor: Liangyu
COLOMBO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan Ministry of Transporton on Sunday conducted a test run along the newly constructed railway line between Matara and Beliatta in the south of the island country which will boost passenger traffic.
The 26.75 km long Matara-Beliatta railway extension was financed by the Exim Bank of China and the contract was awarded to China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation.
A major portion of the construction was carried out by China Railway Group 5 (CR5) and the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB) which acted as the consultant.
Sri Lanka's Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Arjuna Ranatunga, speaking at a ceremony before conducting the test run, said that the railway line is the first to be constructed in Sri Lanka since 1948 and it includes the longest and second longest railway bridges of 1.5 km and 1.04 km, respectively.
The railway line also includes one of the tallest railway bridges, the longest railway tunnel and the most modern railway station buildings in the country.
Ranatunga said he was hoping to officially inaugurate the railway line and open it to the public before the local Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April.
The new railway line is expected to increase traffic into the south and boost trade between capital Colombo and the deep south.
ECRL is up and running againECRL to proceed at smaller scale, lower cost
KONG SEE HOH /
07 APR 2019 / 17:11 H.
The original proposed route for the ECRL on March 8, 2017. The new route has yet to be revealed. — Bernama
FOLLOWING months of negotiations, Malaysia and China have reached an agreement to resume the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, which was suspended last July.
It will be carried out on a smaller scale, and at a lower cost with some changes to the route, Sin Chew Daily reported today.
The daily learnt that the cost of the project, which was originally tagged at RM66 billion, will be slashed by more than RM10 billion.
A well-placed source told the daily that what the two parties had arrived at was a win-win solution as the re-negotiated project includes new commercial elements, which will bring about greater benefits to local entrepreneurs and people.
It is learnt that an agreement will be signed prior to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to China at the end of this month, marking the resumption of the project.
The source said Council of Eminent Persons chairman Tun Daim Zainuddin, who is representing Malaysia in the negotiations, will fly to Beijing soon to sign the agreement.
Mahathir is scheduled to visit China from April 24 to 28 at the invitation of Chinese premier Xi Jinping to attend the second Belt and Road Initiative summit.
It is understood that Mahathir will address the summit and emphasise Malaysia’s support for the Belt and Road Initiative.
According to the report, environmental considerations are the main reason that changes will be made to the ECRL route.
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/ecrl-to-proceed-at-smaller-scale-lower-cost-ED764798
